My Atheist Friends, Help Me Understand

I read posts here that call different things, "harmful to humanity." Others call something, "good" or "bad" or "evil."

A very simple question, who gets to decide the definition of "harmful to humanity" and what is there critieria? The same for "good," "bad," and "evil?" These are not material terms. If everything is material isn't there just "is" and not these moral declarations if one is being thoroughly atheist?

Help me understand your position so I am fair and honest about the views. Thanks.

Archaeopteryx - he has plenty of Arabic Muslims with whom he ca discuss his theological outlook. I'm not sure why so many theists feel they need to justify their positions with Atheists - perhaps just a way to hone their apologetics. In any event, he came here trying to spread the message of his cult and I, for one, see no reason whatsoever to treat him with kid gloves because he chose a forum that didn't use his first language.

Call it intuition (or anything else you like), but I also sense he's looking for answers, and possibly other points of view, and I intend giving him the benefit of the doubt. There's a distinct difference in character between Lonely and a troll like Michael, with whom I've no patience whatever.

@thelonely. We deceive it because there is a very powerful force within us called self interest. This allows us to have free pass to do what suits, like keeping slaves, subjugating women, eating animals and the like.

@john major,i can easily give you other examples of "what suits" for other ppl you may be one of them,or simply i said i am not keeping slaves,i am not subjugating women (i am single),but i like chicken yes.So this is not a way of good discussion in "think atheist" i think. thank you.

I don't know where to post this, but I feel it's important, and if the powers that be choose to censor it, that's on them.

I didn't REALLYstart to get pissed until they denied Archaeopteryx - at some point, you just gotta say, Hey --!

Creationists In South Korea Force Removal Of Evolution From High-School Textbooks

Creationists in South Korea won a campaign to remove evolution from high school textbooks.

According to Nature.com, a group called the Society for Textbook Revise mounted an effective petition drive and is claiming credit for the removal of the evolution "error"from student's textbooks in order to "correct" their understanding of the world.

South Korean publishers will soon be removing examples of evolution from many high-school textbooks. The decision was taken , after government officials sent the Society's petition to publishers, reports the New York Daily News.

The group petitioned to remove specific examples of how animals have evolved, including the horse and Archaeopteryx bird, along with any reference to human evolution and Charles Darwin's theory of human origin. The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MEST) has confirmed that publishers are working on revised editions.

According to Newser, the Society For Textbook Revise was set up in the 1980s by the US Institute for Creation Research when Christianity spread across South Korea.

Many biologists are furious with this decision saying they were not consulted. Dayk Jang, an evolutionary scientist at Seoul National University, told Newser: “The ministry just sent the petition out to the publishing companies and let them judge.”

South Korea is increasingly becoming a "scientific powerhouse," Josh Rosenau, programs and policy director at the National Center for Science Education told the Daily News. But Rosenau worries that South Korea will not be able to compete internationally if it doesn't continue teaching evolution in schools.

“Evolution is the core of modern biological science,” he said. “When something like this comes to fruition, the scientific community can be caught flat-footed.”According to Newser, approximately forty percent of South Koreans don't believe in evolution, akin to a Gallup poll showing nearly the same percentage of Americans also deny evolutionary claims.

I run into a lot of people who don't know that S. Korea isn't a Buddhist, Confucian, or Shinto culture. Rather, it's become a largely Christian country among those who profess a religion (46.5% do not, which is encouraging).